The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1887-10-19

Charlie Bronson stepped upon the
orch Of the farmhouse one balmy
vening. he knew that his father
was seated somewhere among the
climbing vines.
"Papa, he said, al was just won
dering about the man in the moon.
OF course there isn't man IN the
moon, but it looks as if there was.
1t isn't hard to outline face in it.
What are those blurred spots which
we seer"
@They are immense barren plains,
my son. AT one time they were
supposed to be seas, and the first as
trOnomers gave them poetical names,
such as the Sea of Tranquility, Sea
of Nectar, Ocean of Tempests, etc.
GBut how do we know that the
darkspots areplains,' Charlie asked.
"By the aid of telescopes, replied
his father.
"But isn't the moon too far away
for that, papa2"
"The moon is our nearest neigh
Dor. What is her distance from the
earth?'
1.-TWO hundred and thirty-seven
thousand miles," Charlie said.
swell, that is not far, compare
lively We are ninety-one millions
of miles, while Neptune is nearly
two billion of miles, from the sun,
taking one hundred and sixty-four
years to make one revolution that
constitutes its year.
"GoOdness, melp cried Charlie.
"People must live to be very old
there"
81 gave you these figures to show
what I meant when said that we
were comparatively near the moon.
five could get there by means of
steam it would require a little less
than two years travelling at high
rate of speed"
'.But, papa, must not the tele-
scopes be very strong to enable us
to distinguish objects in the moon?'
eyes, my son, and inventive genius
has been equal to the necessity.
Opticians have succeeded in manu-
featuring lenses which magnify fifty
million times. The Lord Rose te!-
escOpe has six foot opening and
is fifty-fve feet long. 1t is walled
in, resembling a section of fortif-
cation, and weighs more than four
teen thousand pounds"
lover seven tonsl" exclaimed
Charlie.
ait is so strong that it would de-
tect herd of Buffaloes or troops
marching in the order of battle.
There are immense mountains in the
moon shattered by volcanic fires,
the craters gaping close to each
other, the one belonging to the vol
cano of Aristillus measuring ten
leagues from one edge to the other.
The SUBMITS of Mount Derfel are
$4,000 feet high, while Mont Blanc
rises but 1892 feet above the level
of the sea-"
att is just wonderful that we can
know so much about a planet that
is so far away. Is the moon inhab-
tied? Was it ever inhabited?"
':NO, my dear boy. People could
not live there. 1t is believed that
nothing lives there. The soil is
shattered, rocky and bare; there is
not a flower, not even a blade of
grass Everything is wrapped in
tOrpOr and silence; the echoes are
mute; no zephyrs play around the
SUBMITS of the mountains. The
moon was once a portion of our
earth
"oh, papaP' exclaimed Charlie.
That piece of information startled
him.
Astronomers tell us" continued
his father, sthat the moon was de-
taehed from the earth, and though
cold and wan, it was once a red,
blazing sphere. 1t exhausted its
fires during the course of thousands
Of years, and now simply reflects to
US, in wierd, pale light. the di-
vergent rays of the SUM-
No reform can attain to success
that lessons the power or influence
of any order in the social comnaet.